Page 71 of Hearts on the Table
“Definitely need more beer.” Blake peered around the bar while I frowned down at Lainey.
“What do you mean,allyour clinical work?” That couldn’t be right. Cooper was slammed through August. No way would the department just release her from work right at the home stretch of her program.
“No surgeries, no rounds. I had to hand all my patients over to Jones. My time is apparently more valuable speaking to the media than it is in the OR.”
“What the fuck?” Blake blurted. Lainey looked at him as if she’d just realized he was there.
“I. Know.” She shook her head at him. “I tried to talk them out of it, but they steamrolled me. And Sturmond is over there spouting off his nonsense about me being a team player. He basically came out and said that if I did these interviews, I’d get a job. Can he even do that? You’re the one in charge of the interviews.”
I side-stepped the question. Now was most definitely not the time to get into my new role in the interviews. “That makes no sense. You need to go to Whitaker.” I looked around for someone to give me a check. I could close out my tab now, walk over to Cedar, grab the fellowship director, and shake some sense into him myself.
“He was in the room, Reese!” My heart stuttered.Reese. She didn’t seem to notice. “He said he supported the whole thing. Apparently, the hospital has been flooded with donors all week. The Gates Foundation called Caplan to talk about some sort of fellowship grant, or something. They said there’s a chance I could be sidelined until the end of my program.”
She buried her face in her hands. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch her, to wrap my arms around her, but I didn’t dare.
Blake whistled. “That sucks. Seriously. At least there’s one upside to working for a blacklisted program. The board doesn’t dare tell us what to do. We’re understaffed, as-is.”
Lainey raised her head to look at him. I got a sick feeling when I saw the gears in her head turning. “For real?”
Blake nodded, still searching for a waiter. “Absolutely. They’re so desperate to rebuild, we have nothing left to lose. They pretty much let us do whatever, as long as it’s legal. If this happened at Mercy, you could totally tell them to fuck off.”
She stared at him for another moment, eyes glazed yet focused at the same time. I could see where this was heading. I opened my mouth to say something, but she beat me to it. “And procedures? What about new or experimental surgeries?”
“You kidding? They can’t get enough of them. They’re hoping we can remake a name for ourselves by being more innovative. We’re taking that LVAD that Cooper couldn’t get approval on.”
“Mercy is letting us do the LVAD?” she gasped, eyes lighting up like it was Christmas. Her excitement finally registered with Blake. He whirled on her like a shark smelling blood in the water.
“Just Cooper. It was Sam’s idea, actually. We’re calling it a training procedure so our team can watch. Can’t do that with fellows. Now, if you were on staff with us, though…” He trailed off, dangling the bait. Lainey bit her lip, wavering for only a second before anger and resolve slid like a hard mask over her face.
“Are you interviewing? Can you get me in?”
Blake laughed so loudly that the patrons who’d lost interest in our table stared. “No interview necessary. Name your price.”
“No, I want to do this the right way. All the right channels. I’m not saying I’m coming to Mercy, but I’ll at least check it out.”
They set up an interview then and there while I glared around for our missing server. You’d think going viral would at least help me get a beer. Blake pocketed his phone, beaming. He sobered up quickly when he saw my face.
“I’ll go up for another round. This one’s on me.” He hoofed it to stand in line at the bar before I could respond. Like buying me a beer would make up for trying to poach Lainey.
“What?” She toyed with the empty glass on the table, finally sliding onto the stool I’d vacated for her. She looked somewhat calmer, now that she’d orchestrated a big fuck you to Cedar with this Mercy interview.
I shrugged, glancing over at the game. Cubs were up by two. Huh.
“You look like you want to murder someone. It’s just an interview. I’m allowed to explore my options.” She crossed her arms.
“It’s well within your rights to interview with other institutions.” I sounded like I was reading from an employee handbook. Funny how for the last few days, all I’d wanted was to talk to her, but here she was now and I couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact.
“But? You’re worried we won’t see as much of each other if I work somewhere else?” In fact, yes, that thought had crossed my mind. I was glad to know it had crossed hers, too. Maybe there was hope for us, yet. “I’d probably get off most nights and weekends. And Mercy is just down the street. We could meet for lunch.”
She wasn’t wrong, but the source of my frustration wasn’t that she was taking an interview at Mercy. “Too far away to worry about now.” I reached for a coaster, sliding my knucklesacross hers with the movement. “I’m sorry about the media stuff. It’s ridiculous for them to sideline you.”
She stared at her hand. I wondered if she could still feel the tingling rush from where our skin touched, like I could. “Thank you. Maybe…maybe it’ll only be for another week? This will all die down just in time for the final attending interviews.”
“Maybe.” Hopefully. This video had effectively derailed all my plans—at least for the time being. The sooner it vanished into the social media ether, the better. If only the PR people would just give it a rest.
“Are you okay? You look…sad or something.” Her pinky brushed mine. I sighed. Her thighs had been wrapped around my head for a full thirty minutes last weekend, and now I was settling for a centimeter’s worth of contact. I was indeedsad or something.
“This has all been weird.” Understatement of the year. What I wanted to say was that she felt like sand slipping through my fists, and I couldn’t do anything about it. But that was too much to put on her when she was already dealing with losing her surgical roster. Not to mention, we weren’t even technically dating.
